Schröder Wants Stem Cell Laws Eased

[Kellanved]

A day after Italians rejected easing their prohibitive law on fertility and bioethics, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder declared that Germany should liberalize its own restrictive legislation on stem cell research.

"We must not disconnect ourselves from progress in international research in biotechnology and genetic engineering," Schröder said. The chancellor made his remarks after receiving an honorary doctorate from the Biology Department at the University of Göttingen on Tuesday.

Schröder called for "research without fetters but not without borders." He said the research methods should be explored as long as the medical potential of research with adult and embryonic stem cells hadn't been exhausted and the chance to fight incurable diseases remained.

The chancellor also stood up for stem cell researchers' moral integrity and said it was arrogant to cast doubt on the scientists' motives. He stressed that the controversial issue should be dealt with in a broad social dialogue.

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But politicians from the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrat's junior coalition partner, the Greens, criticized the chancellor's comments.
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